I Don't Like Mondays……………..or Tuesdays, Wednesdays

By John Gough, Diabolo

Has that Monday morning feeling extended to the rest of the week, it seems British workers are fed up with their lot, if current surveys are to be believed.

The latest OPP survey of over 1000 UK employees, 'Changing Times', found a plethora of unhappy employees, half of whom had considered quitting their jobs.

In another report, 'In Search of Meaning in the Workplace', from the education and research organisation Roffey Park in conjunction with Management Today it was found that 70% of employees are disenchanted, and are looking for more meaning in their work. "People need to, and want to work and belong to communities in which they can make a meaningful contribution" said Linda Holbeche the report's author, "work for many people provides a source of identity. People work such long hours that work is often their social outlet as well. Greater emphasis on the 'dog eat dog' work mentality, have made relationships more mistrustful and change more difficult to manage"

The issue central to both reports is change, 67% of HR managers interviewed in the OPP study felt that excessive change in the workplace had led to their workforce feeling demotivated and uncommitted.

Recently, I was working with an organisation that was running courses: 'Making Change Business as Usual', this may be the mantra of the executive board, but the way change is managed in organisations has an overriding impact on morale and motivation.

Change in organisations can be summed by Mark Thomson the incoming Director General of the BBC, "were going to have to change the BBC more rapidly, and more radically over the next three or four years than at any time in its history"

The dilemma at the top of organisations is that the pace of change is gathering pace, but at the same time their workforce is becoming more change averse.

This is not surprising as so often change means job losses. Justin King CEO of Sainsbury's has just announced a programme of 1000 management jobs, being replaced by 3000 shop floor jobs, as the retailer changes and gets back to basics and ensures the shelves are being filled. OK, so management may be partly responsible for the loss in profit, sales, and market share. Collectively 1000 management staff lose their job, but individually change which means losing your livelihood is anything but business as usual.

About Diabolo

Diabolo promotes an innovative dynamic approach enabling change in organisations by connecting hard-headed business skills with the human spirit and values. Combining our collective knowledge and experience, we have created some powerful frameworks for business thinking. We call these Diabolo Journeys. We use a highly visual technique to guide clients through complex processes with clarity of thought. By combining tried and tested coaching and consulting practice with graphics, we have developed a suite of Diabolo Journeys covering many business issues.”

John Gough is a Director of Diabolo

Amber is the Real Green

By Chris Grey, Project Management Professional

As project managers we are often asked to provide reports on the status of a project in simple, easy to understand, terms. The use of Red, Amber, Green (RAG) indicators has become the de facto standard for indicating if a project is slipping badly (Red), beginning to show signs of slippage (Amber) or is nicely on track (Green).

However, all Project Managers have a responsibility to their employer to ensure that the company is getting best value for its money. This includes getting good productivity from the staff. So it is entirely possible that in a project environment which is consistently showing green the members of the team are not being taxed in any way. While this is good for the project it does not meet the management requirements.

I would propose that if a project manager is going to meet the business objectives of the company (maximising profit) they should treat Amber as the real Green. This, if properly managed, would indicate that the team members are being stretched to complete their tasks in the time allotted.

There is a hidden benefit in adopting this strategy that may surprise many managers (not good managers though). Morale in a department where everyone is being stretched to achieve deadlines is often very high. A fine balancing act I agree, make the deadlines impossible and morale drops but make them just difficult to achieve and the sense of achievement felt by those involved is nothing short of remarkable.

So, the next time you look at your project's RAG indicators give a thought to those tasks showing Green and ask yourself if they are really good news for your company or just good for you.

If you would like to contact Chris about the article please get in touch:tipoffs@projectmanagementnewsletter.co.uk

How the Programme and Project Support Office (PPSO) Can Assist in a Runaway Project By Lindsay Scott, Arras People

The PPSO SIG (Programme and Project Support Office Specialist Interest Group) holds bi-annual conferences and conventions for professionals with an interest in this area. At the last event in September useful collateral and presentations were shared - all in the area of "When Projects Go Bad"

The Agenda

The Convention took place over two days and kicked off with "Starting The Programme Or Project Off On The Right Foot"

A presentation led by John Zacher on some of the things that can be done to ensure project management professionals minimise the chances of problems later - i.e.. things to do at the at the start of the programme or project.

What Problems Do We Face

Delegates were divided into two groups - each group identified what problems and risk may happen in the proposed projects and developed risk response plans using one or more of a range of risk identification and assessment methods

Keeping a watching brief to make sure the project keeps on the right path

A presentation by David Marsh on how to keep an eye on the programme and project by the deployment of effective programme or project assurance. David looked at "What is Programme and Project Assurance and how can your PPSO support this activity?"

How Could The PPSO Help To Resolve This Particular Crisis

A highly focused workshop using brainstorming tools to come up with solutions to the crisis and define the role of the PPSO in helping to resolve the crisis that has occurred.

Materials and further reading - available from the PPSO SIG site

Practical Tip-Off: Introduction to VBA

By Mick Mason - Business Support, Arras People

Many project administrators out there will already be familiar with the term VBA or "Visual Basic for Applications" and you'd be surprised at how easy it is and also how no additional applications are required.

Everything from automating report generation and e-mail collocation to displaying input boxes or simple dialog boxes prompting the user or even user level tracking can be done using VBA. You can customise form navigation and queries in MS Access or completely customise MS Word so it doesn't even look like Word.

User level tracking is particularly useful in a large environment where many people have access to one file. Also, the ability to open multiple files sequentially when just one is requested can also be a benefit and save time selecting multiple dialog boxes to "OK" links to external files.

Although many of you will be familiar with input validation and conditional formatting VBA really comes into play when you want to control and track a user's input.

One other area you might be interested in which I will cover at a later stage is customised help files. Giving the user the ability to help themselves rather than asking you the questions and freeing up much more of your time. In the next issue we start off with something simple and easy just to get you started.

Mick can be contacted at: business.support@arraspeople.co.uk

Employment A-Z:
C=Curriculum Vitae

By Sarah Pearson
ACKERMAN CHASE CV SERVICES

CV writing can be an awesome task if you have not had to face competing for jobs for quite some time. Many project managers are fortunate enough to gain business by referral, without a CV ever having to change hands. But sooner or later, even they are likely to find themselves 'back out there'.

So what are you competing with?

Probably a great deal more than was the case even a year ago. Employers and recruiters are catching on fast to online recruitment. Because of this, job opportunities are being opened up to a much wider geographical area. Therefore, the need to sell yourself to the hilt, just to get a look in, has never been more vital.

Make the CV work hard for you

Most clients that I talk to tell me that they have no problem at all selling themselves face-to-face. Interviews - bring it on! But CV writing is a different matter altogether. You can't change a recruiter's mind about you if they don't like the look of you on paper. So your task is to create maximum impact within concise, tightly written text. It's all a matter of good marketing. Create the mood for the reader - use as much white space as you can and use concise, informative sentences. Address the recruiters' needs, not your own.

It's all too easy to cram in every little thing you've ever done, fearing that if you omit anything, it might have been the one detail that would have swung it for you. In actual fact, recruiters won't read it all, they won't have time, so the chances are high that the point you were trying to get across will be missed anyway. Draw the reader's eye to the information you most want them to know about - technical skills, project types, professional accomplishments, etc. Give them context, so the recruiter understands the significance of your achievements.

Consider a situation or task you were faced with. What action did you take to resolve it or to deliver what was needed? What was the result of your actions? Was the project delivered to deadline and within budget? Did they get repeat business? Were you instrumental in their increased profits? Use industry-specific keywords whenever possible - it has a positive psychological effect on the reader. It implies you are on their wavelength.

Recruiters ask themselves 'What's in it for me?'. Make sure they know what value you can bring to their organisation.

CV writing can be tedious, but in order to get your application narrowed down from possibly a hundred to three, it has to be the one of the most crucial aspects of your job-hunt. Spend lots of time on getting it right, and it will pay dividends.

Sarah Pearson
ACKERMAN CHASE CV SERVICES
www.ackerman-chase.com

Ackerman Chase is a partnership with over twenty years' combined experience within management and recruitment. We have experienced the frustration of sifting through hundreds of poor CV's to find suitable candidates to fill our positions.

The main problem seems to be that applicants are not really aware of the quantity and quality of the competition for the jobs they want.

Our research of companies, large and small, shows that most don't invite people for interview because the CV does not differentiate them adequately from the other applicants, and therefore does not convey their unique qualities.

We want to take away the mystery. We want you to see yourself the way you really are. There is nobody else like you. Nobody can do your job the way you do it.

Ackerman Chase love to give applicants every chance to succeed by helping them understand their very real value to potential employers.

New Roles from Arras People

For all our current live vacancies see the website at www.arraspeople.co.uk/jobs.php

Hot Jobs! We have a number of on-going recruitment campaigns for a number of clients:

• Management consultancy - looking for a number of roles from Programme Directors, Project Managers, Project Support Officers - if you have consultancy org experience, public sector projects and programmes, security clearance. Permanent roles
  
  
• Healthcare Sector - again looking for a variety of roles from Project Manager to PMO and planners - contract roles
  
  
• Systems Implementation / Consultancy - Project Management and Support roles. Permanent roles

Project Management Careers Clinic Timings for November 2004

Career clinic timings over the coming month:

Project Managers - 23/11/04

Project Support / Project Office - 25/11/04

Programme Managers/Executives - 02/12/04

> Book now

Recent feedback - From a candidate wanting to discuss "testing my expectations of my market value" - Recommendation to others to use the service "Absolutely - the session matched my expectations completely, and the format was practical."

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